3/12/2010

Wednesday, February 24. On Arrival

We arrived at Port Au Prince (PAP) from Miami in a flight packed with expat Haitians and members of various charities and missions. The airport building at PAP is closed because of the damages it sustained. They are using a storage structure as the terminal.

This time we had to drive from PAP to Les Cayes because the domestic flights are not working 100% yet. It took us 5 hours to cover the approximate 225 km, and over 1 ½ hours to get through PAP. The capital has been turned into a massive refugee camp and the level of destruction is appalling. The buildings and houses that collapsed were mostly flattened, hence the level of deaths.

Once we left PAP we were shocked to see how much destruction has been caused to community after community along the way. The road is lined by tent villages for many kilometers and the road itself has been badly damaged in various points. It was not until we were close to Les Cayes that we could see regular life going on, the road buzzing with children dressed in school uniforms.

At Les Cayes we went to visit La Bonet, a computer business we want to engage for our computer project. We finally arrived at Ile a Vache close to 10 hours after departing Miami. The island is tranquil like always, but its people are feeling the economic pain of the catastrophe that has affected the country. There is less work both at Les Cayes and at the island itself, for one, the hotels on the island do not have guests and had to cut down their employees. There are also some people from the main island that have moved to Ile a Vache, but not many, and then nearly everybody has lost some family members or friends that lived in the affected areas.

There have been various help initiatives that have reached Ile a Vache after the earthquake. A boat with food and different supplies was brought by the owners of Abaka Bay hotel. Two catamarans from Martinique have delivered rice, baby formula, medicament and other basic supplies to Port Morgan Hotel. From there the supplies are being delivered to Seur Flora orphanage in Madame Bernard and also to our clinic at Kakok.